


Inside to Outside

by chrsovna



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: F/M, Season/Series 02, fluff-ish, post-Halloween
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-31
Updated: 2015-10-31
Packaged: 2018-04-28 13:03:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5091797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chrsovna/pseuds/chrsovna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Following the events of Ethan Rayne's Halloween rampage, Spike comes back home with a present for his dark princess.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Inside to Outside

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Magic Box Prompts Halloween Fic Exchange on tumblr. The prompt was "Sprusilla fluff," courtesy of the lovely **drusillatheseer**.

When the ripples appeared on the night's glossy surface, she was awake in bed, counting stars through the ceiling, one arm stretched out towards it, the other limp at her side. They blinked at her, she knew, tiny heartbeats seared into the back of her eyelids, invisible, but there, and there, and... oh, right _there_. The cry of the opening door pulled her up by her lashes, and suddenly she was reaching into a horizontal kind of void, full of creases and corners and stale crescent rolls, crumbling to crumbs when birds picked them apart, layer by layer.

“All the dollies are back in their little beds,” she realised, startled, as the shadows scatted into various crooks and nooks of the room. “Is it not right to play in the dark any more?”

“Not tonight, my sweeting,” came a gentle response. The darkness parted and the pale cutwork of his face appeared, sharply outlined against the surrounding black. She scooted up on the bed to make place for him to sit. It squeaked lightly when he shifted to open the nightstand drawer, where candles lived and withered and died among cobwebs. Mesmerised, she watched him pull one out, dust off the knot, and then stick the taper into a rusty holder. A faint metallic _clang!_ was all it took to bathe the room in a soft golden glow.

Humming in contentment, she burrowed into his side, her fingers closing over the silver lighter in his. “Fireflies underwater,” she breathed, dimly aware of the stolen gold flickering in his downcast eyes, and the certainty that it danced just the same in her own. Without a word, he draped one arm around her, and she inhaled the familiar sweet, purple scent, smoke curling over moorlands, crisp leather against her skin.

“I wish I could have come before playtime was over,” she confessed. The words laughed at her, taunting, making her hold onto him tighter.

He pressed his lips to the top of her head, light as a feather, and she felt the answer rather than heard it. “Not worth fussing about, pet. Whoever did this, well... Nothin' happens on Halloween and the twat'd better remember it.” His breath ruffled her hair. Dru closed her eyes.

“Clothes make the man, pretty frillies, all wrong.” She ran her hand over his coat lapel, stopping just short of the pocket. “All the cherries and rubies couldn't put it together.”

“Put what together, ducks?” his chest rumbled, and she rubbed her cheek against it. Somewhere else, sadness lapped at the hollow inside her like a pink-tongued puppy, but right now, she didn't feel it, didn't want to speak of it.

“My sweet William got me an early birthday present,” she said instead, drawing back to look up at his clear-cut visage. “I shall see it before the sun eats the night.” ...eats the sun eats the night eats the sun eats the night... Inside to outside again, caught in an endless switch.

A whole range of emotions flicked through his eyes before they were filled with something uncertain and forlorn. “It's quite silly. I'm not sure...”

She lifted one hand to caress his cheek. _It's not_ , she was saying with the tips of her fingers. He leaned into her touch, and, briefly, she let him, only to pull away after a few blissful moments, an expectant smile splitting her face.

Muttering something under his breath, Spike reached into his pocket, pulling out a small bundle. “'S not for your birthday,” he said, uncoiling the wrappings. “'S just... Hell, I'll get you everything, all the sodding rubies you want. Just...” He paused, biting his lip, looking for the right words. “For one night... you deserved it. You, of all of them. I'm sorry.”

As gently as if she were made out of silk and porcelain, he brushed hair off her face and tucked it behind her ears, delicately pinning it in place with a small costume tiara. It was too tight, sucking at her scalp like a sweet little leech, and oh, she loved it. She loved it so. Eyes wide, Dru touched the plastic crown with both hands, fingers tracing the elaborate detail with care usually reserved for things of great value. No mirror would allow her to see herself in this new guise, but she didn't really need one when his eyes shone at her more brightly than any star in the sky ever could.

“I'm a princess,” she murmured, the emptiness inside her suddenly less hollow.

“That's what you are,” he managed to get out before she folded into his side again, head tilting so she could sigh thanks straight into his lungs.


End file.
